# FAB Meeting Minutes - 21 August 2024 Date: 2024-08-21 Location: Premier Lounge, Oakwell Stadium PDF: https://images.gc.barnsleyfcservices.co.uk/57449910-9d2c-11ef-81ef-6d20e5914953.pdf Barnsley FC Fan Advisory Group Meeting Minutes Date of Meeting Wednesday 21st August 2024 Location Premier Lounge, Oakwell Stadium Time 6pm Meeting Objective(s) Attendance Present Apologies Jon Flatman - JF Robin Harris - RH Curtis Ledger - CL John Bird - JB Mladen Slomaz - ML Dominic Wood - DW Steve Brain - SB Claire Calton - CC Heather Linney - HL Phil Hall - PH Martin Wilson - MW Kelly Drury - KD Paul Gallagher - PG Agenda, Discussions, Issues Topic / Discussion Notes Discussion led by 1. Welcome and apologies KD welcomed everyone to the meeting. 2. Previous minutes Previous minutes have been approved via email after the last meeting. 3. Sporting Director Information MS attended the meeting to ask about the communication from the footballing side of the club. What is a good number of news stories to publish? Communication on injuries could be better and updates on loan players. The group informed MS that they hadn’t seen any negative comments on what has already been published and to continue with the articles moving forward. 4. New appointments A press release went out asking for supporters to register their interest for the 3 available positions on the FAB which were Content Creators, Women and Girls and Match ticket purchasers. There were a number of applicants for the content creators role. KD is going to contact the applicants and ask them to send a video of up to 3 minutes and then the group will decide on the successful applicant. There were two applicants for the match ticket purchasers who were both interviewed by KD and SB. Andy Gaskell will be appointed as the successful applicant. The final position was for women and girls with Claire Calton appointed in the position. Claire attended the meeting and introduced herself to the group. 5. Club website and updates FAB page on the website for photo’s, bio’s and minutes from the meeting. This will be created once we have time after the Sheffield United fixture. JB to arrange for photo’s to be taken. FAQ’s on the website for questions answered in the meetings. To save supporters reading through the minutes, an FAQ section will be created. Full match replays on iFollow. Currently there are problems with the integration between the site and stream AMG. This is an EFL issue and not club specific but a solution is near in the coming weeks. Website and club app – New club app is currently being developed and released shortly. Media strategy – Numbers of views on social media and on the website are up YTD. Some of the numbers are due to signing an international goalkeeper along with the Callum Simpson fight. There will be a strategy moving forward with minimum stories to be published each day. Media department restructure – This is nearly complete with two new employees joining the team in the coming weeks subject to any notice periods. Lack of tribute to Alan Little – FAB to advise on these issues if they are missed by the club. We should pick them up but assistance from FAB is appreciated too. SB to action a piece to be published on the club website. 6. Huddersfield away game Request to wear our third kit away at Huddersfield in the league game on the 5th October. We have to put the request in to the EFL which we will do and feedback when things have been approved. 7. Matchday experience and ticketing EFL family excellence report to be shared with the FAB. This shows the work we have to do each season to achieve the award. FAB to provide feedback to the club on any ideas they may have. SUFC ticket pricing – We have reduced ticket pricing from the usual match day pricing as everyone has to buy their tickets for the match. With it being a local derby there are higher costs involved with hosting this fixture. Catering issues – East Stand upper tier has long queues on a match day which is a mixture of staff not knowing enough about the products and too slow. The club will look into this with the Catering Manager. FAB also mentioned that there aren’t any low level counters for disabled supporters which are going to be investigated during the cap ex work. There was also a mention of a disabled supporter queue for match day kiosks. Club to look into the issues. New Fanzone – This is also part of the Cap Ex work which is scheduled to start no earlier than January. We will consult the FAB with regards to the design of the new fan zone. Merchandise – all shirt sizes are now in stock. Fanatics are a cashless company and have been for two years at BFC. Meet and greet event timing – Why during the week and not a weekend? It’s a kids event and it is the school holidays. There is no training/match during the event so more access to the players for the supporters. Previous years have had shirt launches and more activities for the children. We could have advertised the day earlier but the fixture scheduling meant we had to wait until we could announce the event. Safe standing update – JF to provide an update through the Barnsley Chronicle column or via the website. 8. Disability issues ST increase from £840 to £1,752 – KD to send through some more information for the club to investigate. Travelling to away games with independent travel groups – There are sometimes issues with parking and drop offs at away games which result in supporters with mobility issues struggling to get to the ground. JB to speak to away clubs to get more information. Club website accessibility – The new EFL website isn’t as accessible as the previous one. JF has taken this up with EFL digital to resolve. Matchday stadium commentary – this has been resolved now with the use of the hospital radio commentary. Better communication on the improvements made in the future. 9. Away tickets Transport costs – Crawley away is £50 with the club and £30 with independent organisers. BFC price our coaches depending on our costs. The costs this season have gone up but we have changed supplier and the quality of the coaches is also better. Ticket information published in advance – The Crawley information was published after the tickets had gone on sale. This was an error on the club’s side and a one off. Horsham refunds – These have been applied to the purchaser accounts. The money for the tickets have been refunded to the accounts of the supporters who have bought the tickets with us, not the account of the supporters which the tickets were assigned to. 10. Club operations Cleaning the guttering in the West Stand – this hasn’t been completed yet due to the need for the use of a cherry picker which can’t go on the edge of the pitch. There is an alternative method to clean the guttering which will be completed in the near future. Callum Simpson fight – feedback and lesson’s learn to be added to the agenda of the next meeting. Town centre and supporters bar – We are looking at a fan zone to bring supporters to the ground earlier and wouldn’t be looking at anything in town at this stage. Cup game lower East Stand decision – We didn’t anticipate a big crowd and opening more areas would incur more costs. 11. AOB 12. Close – 8.15pm Action Items Action Responsible Due Date Contact the content creators for a 3 minute video KD ASAP FAB photo’s to be taken JB ASAP Pink kit to be worn at Huddersfield – feedback once everything is confirmed with the EFL JF ASAP Family Excellence reports to be shared with the FAB JB ASAP Club to look into the issues of disabled supporters queuing in the concourses JB ASAP Safe Standing update JF ASAP More information regarding accessibility at away clubs to be provided to supporters JB ASAP Website accessibility – JF talking to the EFL about this JF ASAP Feedback from the boxing event at the next meeting JF/JB Next meeting Next Meeting Date: 18.09.2024 Time: 6pm Location: Microsoft Teams Objective(s): Source: https://fab.barnsleyfc.co.uk/meetings/2024-08-21